My Bud — Guy C. — noticed one day that when he threw a banger (flashbang) into a 55-gallon drum laying on its side, the barrel went tumbling when the banger went off. He got to thinking–a bad thing for the empty hands and minds of Special Forces soldiers.
“I feel a little advance demolitions trial is on order today,” declared Guy C.
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Nine Alarms went off in my head as I patted myself down, looking for the truck keys. Lending my faith to our unit SOP (Standard Operating Procedure) for vehicles, I hoped it had a full tank of gas. Gas: check. Keys present: check. Guy’s advanced demo training events were a bit too spirited for my blood type, which was O negative at times like those. And he continued:
“Place your bets; will the banger cause the drum to:
A: Remain standing
B: Fall over
C: Lift up off of the ground slightly
D: Just make a loud noise?”
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We placed our bets while Guy prepared his next firing device and a recording camera. He fired the banger, which was placed on the ground under the barrel that was placed over it, with the open side down to the ground, and ran like hell.
When the banger blew it did none of those things to the degree any of us anticipated—the barrel went as high as six stories before settling back down to Earth. It even went completely out of the frame of the recording camera. I was almost sick from the memory of how many bangers I carried on a mission… But the show had to go on!
Another test we did was to shoot a banger to see if it would detonate like in the movies. To our shock, the flashbang detonated every time it was hit. All shocking revelations. Dumb-founded we took our video to the command group, who had us immediately summon the other squadrons to observe and comment on it. It was dubbed the “Banger Appreciation” film and remained in circulation for at least a year.
Did I mention the science laboratory teacher’s desk? We all have seen them in school; usually, it was the science teacher’s desk. It was huge and made of hardwood oak and other hardware. It was a combination desk with its own plumbing for fill and drain, had a bunsen burner configuration, wired for electricity, full plumbing, and usually a granite countertop.
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Mine, I found in an abandoned high school in New Orleans. I took a pause in the action to coordinate with my bro, Chill-D, to place a banger in the pencil drawer to see how much damage one banger could inflict on the desk. Lucky for me there was a utility room close behind the desk. I popped the banger fuse, shoved the banger in the desk, and darted for the back room.
There was a righteous ‘BOOM’.
Afterward, there was no usable or even recognizable component of the desk; nothing but sticks, planks, and corollary trifles. Water spouted where the water feed pipe was broken. I shut that down, took a knee, and whispered:
“God is great.”
By almighty God and with honor,
geo sends
I just have a couple of questions, do you still have the Banger Appreciation film? And where can we watch it? It sounds like a lot of fun. Thanks Geo.
Ah Geo, Blowing up the Teachers desk , a Dream of all young men from grade 4 on. And you didn’t miss the opportunity, Good Job.
I remember you wrote so much about Guy C. That I felt like I got to know him. Writing about good times is a great Tribute to him , and that’s probably why you do it.
I missed you
Geez, I thought me and my buds were the only ones that did this kind of stuff. Warms my heart to know pipe hittin’ hard core Delta bad asses do this kind of thing. Welp, me, son Bud, and his friend young Joshie concieved a plan based on my experience shooting beer bottles fiilled with gas and burning with a blue towel stuck in the top. It made a cool little explosion. So we took a gallon wine jug left here on the ranch by Okie Cal, filled it with gas, stuck a blue towel in the top, and headed for the cow pasture. We set up with Bud prone with his 300 Win Mag, while me and Joshie went down about 100 yards and set off the blue towel. Incredibly dumb in retrospect, we could have been burned up. We ran back to where Bud was and he engaged and KABOOM, flames 300 foot high! We were laughing so hard we all had tears in our eyes. We were afraid that a satellite would see this and the cops would come and arrest us. Nothing ever happened, but we never tried this again. Great story George, loved it!
Holy crap! That barrel went up about six stories?! I would’ve been scared wondering if I would be the one directly under it when it came back down, with my luck!
This was a great story! I’ve always loved the ones you tell about goofing around with your brothers.
Mr. Hand, thank you so much for sharing this one. 💕
Geo,
When I was a child of 12, and fireworks were still legal, my cousin and I found a site sectioned off for property development. Peter was a year older and always on the lookout for a prank to while away the boredom. He had some “bungers” as we called them, that looked like little sticks of dynamite, and the huge ant hills on the site beckoned! The explosive sound was horrifying, but not as horrible as the thousand ants raining down upon my head!
Your antics may not have included an ant or termites nest, but your story was entertaining as always!
Geo,
So excited to see another article from you.
Yes, the aforementioned is the perfect configuration of what I recall from every AP science class. Where where you in our classes? Every student everywhere would have signed up. I would love to see this!
Thank you for sharing this with all of this.
Blessings always ❤️🙏
Mander
Hello Geo…. Science labs can range from the postmortem killing zones for dissecting frogs, cats and piglets to deadly chemical experiments. I had a partner that while on foot patrol came upon a science lab that was being demoed. Lab was lined with lead bricks ( atomic stuff). He managed to rescue just over a half dozen bricks. A few weeks later, we were working an 11pm-7am shift. He was working communications, I was assigned to a motor patrol. Heading back to the station pulling into the dock, couldn’t help but notice my co-worker standing over his kit smelting lead 50.cal shot. He made the 50.smoke pole out of octagon cold roll steel. That smoke pole could do some damage.
Good to hear from you Geo… 2020 was that year that being part of history was not all that keen. Stay Safe Brother!
Things that go boom! Haha. Not surprised at the experiments with flash bags. Grown men having a bit of fun blowing things up sounds like a lot of fun actually.
The science desk must have been a bit of a surprise. Thanks, Geo. This story made me smile.
You’re very welcome, Ms. Joni. I don’t deny any of it.
geo sends
Geo, magnificent!
The description is pretty accurate, Mic-Mac.
geo
And I thought I was a brave kid with my M80’s.